No kidding--the first time I saw one here I thought I needed eyeglasses. The good news is that the white pelican does NOT do the spectacular dives of the coastal brown pelican, given that the waters are just not that deep around here. From same source as above: "This large snow-white bird is 50″–70″ long with black wing tips that can span up to 110″ (9ft.), their feet are orange, and webbed not only between the four front toes but also between the second toe and the inwardly directed back toe."

White pelicans are BIG.

Pika

These are absolutely the most adorable creatures--tiny, and they spend all their time gathering food for winter and eating. (The following picture is from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, so it's copyright free, by the way.) They don't hibernate, so they have to stash food like mad across the short summers of the high terrain.

With this level of omg-cuteness, I had no choice. I added a pika to my growing menagerie of wood critters.

AskaAMarmot.etsy.com is up and running, yay! Now to figure out more and more about all kinds of things that go with an etsy store. At least the store has some things in it. It only took me four years to get this far..

One of the ways to stay inspired is to find beautiful things to enjoy, and etsy is heaven for that, at least for me. Treasuries on etsy on small collections of items put together either thematically (color, use, other) or simply because they are lovely. This treasury went up yesterday:

Yesterday, I stepped away from my day job. I will soon join the ranks of the officially self-employed. I am terrified.

My decision is one that in some ways has nothing to do with me. Instead, it is a result of an interior imperative involved with creation. Essentially, I am giving in to an increasingly loud interior voice that is demanding change--that I switch course and have creation/making as my core organizing principle. This principle, making, is not the principle I would have chosen, mind you. If I could pick, I would be a different kind of person with a different core organizing principle--for example, the kind of person to volunteer in NGOs in Syria or Rwanda. But I'm not that person. And I have to make things and write, or I am miserable (and miserable to be around).

So why do we create? Why do we need to make and write and see beauty and read and sing? I keep thinking about a picture of a monastery built into a cliff--for some reason, knowing that those monks are out there meditating and praying and thinking and reflecting makes a different. What difference? Hmmm. I am looking forward to finding out more about what that difference is.

More immediately, I find myself thinking about specific tasks to accomplish in the near-term--the next six months, say. One of those actions is the act of doing nothing. Life is short (you can call me Captain Obvious), and it's time to pay attention to it, both with intention and without. Staring into space, daydreaming, and letting the mind be free are as important perhaps as action and movement. "Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."*

Another essential action includes daily (or nearly daily) writing--so here is the new blog.

Author

Making, creating, understanding, and doing things that make you very, very happy are important to the universe. I have been thinking about this throughout my life--and so I figure I'll write about it now and see what happens.